Political Action Update
January 20, 2006
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Political Action Update
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January 20, 2006 |
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Education and
Health Care Top Governor’s Agenda Last State of the State Message for Vilsack |
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Focus
on Education The
Governor recommended a five year program to raise teacher pay in Iowa
to the national average. Iowa currently ranks 41st in the nation, an
all-time low for teacher pay in the state.
Last year, the average pay for Iowa teachers was $39,284,
$8,524 below the national average.
The estimated cost of raising teacher pay to the national
average ranges from $150 to $172 million. Vilsack
proposed early childhood initiatives including a plan to ensure that
every four-year-old has access to quality pre-school. The
Governor commented on school restructuring and charter schools, and
called for creation of a “Vanguard School Grant Program” to spur
school transformation in Iowa. Health
Care Addressing
the high cost of health care, the Governor recommended legislation to
allow small businesses to pool risks in order to more affordably offer
health care to employees.
He called for the development of a state health care
“reinsurance plan” similar to plans in place in New York and
Arizona that would help spread the risk of catastrophic losses.
The reinsurance fund would be paid for with an increase in the
tobacco tax. Corrections Without
mentioning the recent prison escape, the Governor said “we must
invest more in corrections so the prisoners that go into prison stay
in prison.” (Vilsack
has since stated that he supports replacing the Fort Madison prison
with a new facility and he has urged lawmakers to make a decision on a
new prison this session.) Environment
and Energy Soy
diesel and E-85 ethanol were mentioned in the Governor’s speech,
along with a call for legislation to expand the production and use of
those products. The
Governor also put forward a plan to invest $50 million in “cleaning
up our water, our rivers, our streams and our lakes.” Other
Issues Vilsack
proposed economic development efforts that included a new $50 million
investment at Iowa universities to “spur innovation and
creativity.” The
Governor recommended the removal of the ban on certain types of
nuclear cell transplant research that the legislature passed and he
signed several years ago. The
Governor also called for the adoption of a plan, similar to
Minnesota’s, to make a one-time state payment of $10,000 to Iowa
National Guard and Reserve soldiers seriously wounded in combat. (This
legislation passed both Houses on January 18th.) |
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Mark Smith, President Iowa
Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO |
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Condition of the State messages reflect not only the Governor's perception of major problems, but also the Governor's perception of the Legislature's willingness to do something about them. This 2006 message was no exception. Focusing on Iowa as a community, the Governor called for major initiatives in education and health care. They are commendable. However, both cost money and it's hard to be optimistic about the Vilsack proposals, when House Republicans have a major Social Security-pension tax cut on a fast track and have also come out against the tobacco tax increase.
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Winners
in the Bush Economy Shareholder
profits. Since the end of the recession, total corporate profits have
grown nearly six times faster than hourly wages. |
Sometime
soon, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the budget
that the Senate passed on December 21 and the House passed in a slightly
different version on December 19. That legislation would make
significant cuts in a number of programs serving low- and moderate-income
families and individuals, including Medicaid, child support enforcement,
and student loans. Supporters
of the legislation defend the cuts as “tough
choices”
that need to be made because of large and growing budget deficits.
These claims are undercut by the fact that, in late 2005, the House passed
four tax-cut bills that together cost more than twice what the budget
reconciliation bill saves. The claims are further undermined by
Congress’s unwillingness to rethink any previously enacted tax cuts as
part of its supposed reevaluation of priorities in light of deficits. Courtesy:
Center for Budget and Policy Priorities |
“Lately,
what has been of great concern, in addition to what I’ve already said,
is the merger of...religion and politics.
Because I happen to be a Christian and I think my religion teaches
me that you should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and
unto God the things that are God’s.
Thomas Jefferson, one of our Founding Fathers, said that we should
build a wall between the church and state.
That wall is being deliberately and ostentatiously, not secretly,
broken down.
So, there has been an increasing merger in this country of
fundamentalism on the religious side, fundamentalism on the political
side, and the two have come together.” —Former
President Jimmy Carter On the Dec. 5, 2006 “Daily Show” |
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91% |
80% |
34% |
13% |
13% |
7% |
7% |
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Senator Tom Harkin |
Representative |
Representative |
Senator Charles Grassley |
Representative Jim
Nussle |
Representative |
Representative |
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Iowa
is one of ten states the AFL-CIO is targeting in its “Who’s On Our
Side” campaign. The campaign
focuses on holding Congressional officials accountable by publicizing
their votes on issues that most directly affect workers and their
families. A Midterm Report
Card on each Congressman has been prepared based on issues including: jobs
and wages, retirement security, health care, tax fairness, and education.
The
Report Cards are available on-line at www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/reportcards.cfm. “Working
families, with the facts in hand, have the power to...make sure we are
represented by leaders who are fighting for our best interests—and not
the special interests—every day,” said Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer. Shown
above are the Iowa members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of
Representatives. The
percentage listed above each photo is that Congressman’s lifetime record
of voting in support of the AFL-CIO
position. Congressmen Boswell, Leach, King and Latham are seeking reelection in 2006, and Congressman Nussle, who currently represents the First Congressional District in eastern Iowa is seeking the Republican nomination for Governor. |
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Becomes Law in Maryland Measure is Similar to Iowa AFL-CIO Proposal |
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The
Maryland bill requires large employers (over 10,000 employees) to spend 8
percent of their payroll on health care for their workers.
If they don’t spend 8 percent on health care, they then must pay
the shortfall, up to the 8 percent threshold, into a state fund to help
cover the cost of the medical care provided by the state to workers and
the families of workers who lack adequate health care coverage.
Of the four employers in Maryland with more than 10,000 workers,
only Wal-Mart fails to meet the 8 percent threshold for employee health
care. Wal-Mart
made $10 billion last year in profits, yet 46 percent of the children of
Wal-Mart’s 1.33 million U.S. workers are either uninsured or on
Medicaid, according to Wal-Mart’s own information. In addition, fewer
than half of Wal-Mart’s workers have health care coverage on the job,
according to an October 2003 AFL-CIO report.
As a result, many Wal-Mart workers and their families are forced to
turn to public health services and emergency rooms for their health care.
Iowa is no exception, where an
estimated 850 Wal-Mart workers rely on Medicaid for their health care. Iowa
is one of 33 states with a Fair Share Health Care campaign underway to
ensure that large corporations stop shifting health care insurance costs
onto workers, taxpayers and other businesses.
Fair Share Health Care legislation will reduce the bill taxpayers
pay to cover profitable corporations’ employee expenses, thus easing the
financial strain states face in growing Medicaid costs.
Just as importantly, it will help level the playing field between
companies that provide good jobs and benefits and those that don’t. |
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What
if Bush Told the Truth About the Economy?
A
summary of
remarks from John Sweeney’s January 18th address to the
National Press Club.
“But
what if he told the American people the truth?” Sweeney asked. Sweeney
said Bush won’t do that because the truth would involve admitting
“we are barely creating enough new jobs to match the growth in our
workforce—and increasingly, the jobs we are generating are dead-end
alleys. Our trade policies have translated into over 2 million lost
manufacturing jobs…just since 1998, our debt to other countries is
rising by more than $1 million a minute and almost $700 billion in
U.S. Treasury notes are held by China alone.” According
to The New York Times writer Louis Uchitelle, author of The
Disposable American,
due out from Knopf in March, more than 30 million workers were
involuntarily displaced from their jobs between 1980 and 2001. “Far
more than in the past, America lives with a chronically floating,
low-wage workforce, one that would not exist if the deterioration in
pay and training, and the acquiescence to layoffs, had not made
inroads into the dignity of work,” Uchitelle writes. And just today,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that U.S. workers’
inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings declined 0.5 percent in
2005. To
stem the flood of job loss, Sweeney said the nation must reverse its
trade policies and demand that rights for workers receive the same
protections as corporate interests in all trade agreements. In
addition, new laws should be enacted to make it illegal for companies
to buy or sell merchandise or services manufactured or provided under
sweatshop working conditions. Also,
Sweeney said tax laws that encourage corporations to send jobs
overseas should be repealed and all goods and services paid for with
tax dollars should be produced or provided in this country. Courtesy:
Work in Progress |
In cooperation with the Iowa
State Building and Construction Trades Council and the Iowa
Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO presents a conference for union members. Issues for Building Trades Unions A one day program for union leaders covering the key issues and challenges facing organized labor in the building and construction trades. Topics include:
Housing
Policy: You will need to reserve and pay for your own housing
directly with the Iowa House Hotel at (319) 335-3513.
A block of rooms is being held under “Labor Center” until
February 16, 2006 at an approximate rate of $70 per night, plus
taxes. |
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Iowa
Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Monday
Evenings 5:00
- 7:00 Machinists
Hall 2000
Walker Street |
Iowa
Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO 10:30
Monday Morning During
the Legislative Session 2000
Walker Street Des Moines, Iowa |
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Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Annual February 27 - March 1 Adventureland Inn Altoona, Iowa |
Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO March 25 USW Local 310 Hall 125 NW Broadway Des Moines, Iowa |
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Governor
Tom Vilsack utilized a theme of community in his final State of the
State message which highlighted the opening week of the 2006 Iowa
General Assembly.
Maryland
became the first state in the nation to pass the Fair Share Health Care
Act when the Maryland Legislature voted to override the Governor’s
earlier veto of the bill.
